Fatemeh Hashemi: One of Mehdi's Interrogators Was a Former Member of the Nuclear Team

Fatemeh Hashemi, daughter of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, states that one of the experienced members of Iran's former nuclear team, named Hamid Asgari, was an interrogator of her brother, Mehdi Hashemi. Ms. Hashemi told the 'Kalameh' website, close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, that 'a while ago, Mehdi Hashemi called from Evin Prison and said that he saw his interrogator, Hamid Asgari, alongside Saeed Jalili in a special commission reviewing the JCPOA on television.' Iranian news agencies reported on September 13 that a special session of the JCPOA review commission was held with the presence of Saeed Jalili and several members of the former nuclear negotiation team, including Hamid Asgari. Parts of the sessions reviewing the JCPOA were broadcast on the Iranian News Network. Mehdi Hashemi, who has been in prison since August 9, claimed in a phone call with his sister after watching the program on television that one of the former team members was his interrogator and others as well. According to published reports, Hamid Asgari was previously the head of the nuclear committee of the Supreme National Security Council. He was also the head of the expert team negotiating with the 5+1 during the management of Iran's nuclear file by Saeed Jalili. Hamid Asgari, as a specialist in nuclear issues, had given a speech on June 27 last year at the center for elite scholars in a session titled 'Insight Session.' This is not the first time the issue of interrogators being members of Iran's former nuclear team has been raised. On September 1 of this year, Hashmatollah Tabarzadi, a political activist, claimed in an article that one of his interrogators, named Mohammad Saidi (who interrogated him under the alias Sayyadi), was the deputy for parliamentary affairs at the Atomic Energy Organization and had been a member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team for five years.